The 400 Year WarChapter 19
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The American Indian Tribes in the American Revolution
1777
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA (The Turning Point)
In almost every conflict there comes a certain battle or a military move that than be described as "The Turning Point of the War". Of course this is often decided upon by the victors and not the losing side. It could be said that "Gettysburg" was the "turning point" of the American Civil War or that "Stalingrad" was the "turning point of eventual Nazi defeat. In the American Revolution, the "Battle of Saratoga" was considered by many historians to be the "turning point" of the American Revolution that would seal the doom of the British Regular Army forces.
Before concentrating on the American Indian Tribes involvement with this particular engagement, I would like to present the background of the meeting engagement which in many ways resembled the many battlefields on the fields of military conflict on European soil.
The scope of the battle is not the most contentious fighting in the conflict but it represented the direct encounter of the disciplined British Regular troops against the American Militia on an open field of battle. It was generally a scenario that heavily favored the well-trained British troops but there were two ingredients that made that lopsided balance more equal. The first was that the terrain favored the American forces and the presence on the battlefield of the most skilled field officer of the Continental Army Major General Benedict Arnold.
SETTING THE BATTLEFIELD
Saratoga, New York is situated on the banks of the Hudson River. It was a strategic point from a military point of view because it commanded an entranceway into the vulnerable Patriot positions in the New England and Middle Colonies for the British forces attacking southward from their garrison in Canada.
The original war plans were devised in London by military planners more familiar with European style warfare but they were well constructed and should have been successful except for the crucial terrain features and the brilliance of Major General Benedict Arnold in inspiring exceptional bravery from the men under his command and his confident issuance of orders in the face of chaos.
The basic plan was to send a sizable force of well-trained Regulars down through Lake Champlain from Canada into the core of the rebel territory and split the American forces in two separate parts. One of the first mistakes the British government made was to place the wrong officer in charge of the command. They appointed Major General John "Gentleman Johnnie" Burgoyne to lead the troops in the attack. He was an excellent officer but was saddled with his personal distain for the fighting quality of the American Militia and thought their Officer Corps to be comprised of book-keepers and farmers and not real professionals and certainly no match for the British Army.
Initially the plans for the invasion worked well.
The heavily armed and well-trained troops progressed rapidly down Lake Champlain and were able to capture Fort Ticonderoga without much resistance because they vastly outnumbered the American Militia defenders. There were at this point some key decisions made by General Burgoyne that made his future deployments extremely risky. His decision to press on further south made his logistical line of supply difficult and dangerous. In retrospect, it could be said in his defense that the original plan called for a "hammer and anvil" campaign that relied on a supporting force moving up the Hudson River from New York City to catch the rebels between their two forces. Unfortunately, the triggering orders that would have activated the troops under command of Major General Clinton to move north and reinforce the invading force under Major General Burgoyne's command were not properly presented to General Howe who was in residence in New York City. Some critics of General Howe's insistence on specific orders highlight the fact that he had already started his own plans to move his troops to Pennsylvania and deny the rebels the use of the City of Philadelphia in the belief that the city was the "Capitol" of the Rebellion and would certainly cause the rebels to lay down their arms. The reports of General Howe's actions reached London much too late to save both Major General Burgoyne and his troops or to advise General Howe to reinforce the Canadian effort posthaste. The damage was already done and while the war planners in London looked at their maps on the wall with some dismay, the British Regular troops under the command of General Howe in New York City and Philadelphia celebrated their victory in Pennsylvania with food and drink basking in the support from the "Tory" families that populated both large urban areas.
The disaster that was looming in Saratoga was apparently much more disturbing in London than it was in Boston, New York City or Philadelphia where the troops celebrated their "empty" victories. The thousands of regular British Army Troops and their German allies as well as a large contingent of Indian Tribe supporters and Tory militia were beginning to realize that they were logistically isolated and that the American forces surrounding them were growing larger every day.
Things were turning sour for the large British Regular Troop invasion when a diversionary force of British Regulars and Indian scouts were brought under heavy fire and began to suffer steady losses as they moved through Patriot territory.
Major General Burgoyne still under the impression that he would be joined shortly by reinforcements from New York City moved his forces further south to Sarasota, New York on the banks of the Hudson River where he immediately started construction on a fortified defensive position. With his supplies dwindling, he sent a sizable detachment of his German forces under command of Colonel Baum on a foraging raid into Bennington, New Hampshire. The German detachment came under heavy fire by gathering American militia and Indian Tribes and was on the verge of annihilation. He compounded his mistake of splitting his forces by sending a relief column which never made it through the American Militia lines and had to retreat back to Sarasota.
The slow withering away of the diversionary force under command of St. Leger was subject to total loss of control over his Indian allies who seemed to run amuck against the civilian settlers, the American Militia and even his own forces. He was under constant attack by General Benedict Arnold who finally forced him to give up his advance down the Mohawk River and begin a retreat back north to his base.
Eventually, General Burgoyne elected to move south and engage the American forces under command of General Gates and General Arnold. He felt certain that with Gates in charge, he could outfox him since he was a prior British Army General Officer and General Burgoyne was confident he knew every move the highly structured officer would make in response to his movements. Unfortunately for General Burgoyne, General Benedict Arnold took charge of the troops at a key point in the battle and routed the British Army regulars with repeated attacks. It forced Burgoyne to retreat back to his defensive positions at Saratoga much to his chagrin.
General Burgoyne disregarded the advice of his staff officers and remained in the defensive position at Saratoga because of false intelligence reports that his reinforcements from New York City were close at hand. It was a key error in judgement that led to his surrender of thousands of Regular British Army troop to an overwhelming force of about 20,000 American Militia surrounding his position with only 5,000 men under his command. While the overall losses were not catastrophic to the British war effort, the fact that both France and Spain now aligned themselves on the side of the new Nation and against the British crown made this in-house conflict a global war with Britain suddenly the underdog.
The involvement of the American Indian Tribes in the crucial Battle of Saratoga witnessed Indian tribes fighting on both sides of the conflict.
Over one thousand Indian warriors marched with St. Leger on his diversionary attack to make General Burgoyne's movement down Lake Champlain a bit easier. They represented close to fifty percent of his fighting force and were fearsome in their killing capabilities in the woods. Other Indian fighters working covertly for General Benedict Arnold were able to distort the scouting reports and caused most of the American Indian Tribe support for General St. Leger to desert at a crucial juncture.
Probably one of the major contributions to the defensive posture of the American Militia was the steadfast loyalty of the Oneida Nation who sacrificed their lives and their possessions to support the Patriot cause on the field of battle. The following is a discussion of the Oneida contribution to the cause of freedom and liberty at a time when the new nation needed every friend it could muster.
(An excerpt from the Oneida Nation Newsletter)
The Oneidas played a significant role in the Revolutionary War. Having fought valiently at Oriskany, and Saratoga, the Oneida Nation became known as the First Allies.
Here's a summary of what Revolutionary War veterans faced:
Chief Shenendoah prevented a massacre of settlers in German Flats and encouraged the Oneidas to fight on the side of the Americans during the War of Independence. He was given the name of the "white man's friend" by his fellow Indians.
Shenendoah signed two treaties with the federal government. The first treaty, the Veteran's Treaty, recognized the Oneidas' sacrifices and their help during the Revolutionary War. The second was the 1794 Canandaigua Treaty which recognized Oneida sovereignty, land rights and tax freedoms.
Annuity (treaty) cloth continues to be sent to the Oneida Nation as stipulated by the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, the oldest valid treaty in the United States. In accordance with its terms, the United States deliver bolts of cloth - known as treaty cloth or annuity cloth -- to the Oneida Nation and its fellow members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Although the disbursement has changed and the yardage diminished since the 18th century, the symbolism of the cloth remains steadfast – the treaty is a living document, 18 years younger than the U.S. Constitution, but equally as valid and ageless.
At Oriskany
Reporting on the Aug. 6, 1777 Battle of Oriskany – where at least 60 Oneidas fought with the colonists -- the newspaper Pennsylvania Journal & Weekly Advertiser of Sept 3, 1777 described Oneida Han Yerry and his family as...
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